What better way to start off the new year than a countdown of the previous year's best movies? This list is a bit belated, but I was playing catch up to make sure I caught the best of 2014 as well as some movies that didn't get a wide release until early this year.

As a disclaimer, these aren't what I necessarily think are the best or most well-made. It came down to which ones were my favorites, for various reasons. This past year was fairly spectacular, mostly because of the amount of great movies but also because I got to see a majority of them in theaters. I think these past couple years we've had the privilege of some veteran directors really coming into their own and discovering who they are as artists and what they want to convey. It makes for a really exciting time as a cinema-lover.

10. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night has all the energy befitting of newcomer director Ana Lily Amirpour. An Iranian vampire western romance (if that doesn't hook you, I don't know what will) shot in vogue black and white, it's reminiscent of Jim Jarmusch's stylish Only Lovers Left Alive but matches the pervasive loneliness of Let the Right One In. However, with that said, A Girl is a unique concoction whose strength is not necessarily in its artsy tangents but chiefly in the sheer joie de film vivre whose pulse palpitates throughout the whole movie.

We can talk about any number of shots in this movie, but really the reason I enjoyed it so much was because it's apparent from the first scene that Amirpour loves what she does and she has fun doing it. Dutch angles, black and white kinetic energy galore. There's a cat (whom director Amirpour herself described as "gangster") that guides the scenes, a vampire cruising on a skateboard with her chador floating behind her, and a really spectacular soundtrack. But more than the interplay of prey and predator that threads the movie is the idea of relationships -- who we were before, who we are in the relationship, and how much of it matters in the end. We're all bad, in a way, and we just want to be with someone who understands that.

9. Boyhood

Boyhood's premise sounds like it could be a gimmick and it could easily have turned into one, if not for Richard Linklater's deft touch and his wisdom of allowing the sort of breathing space that we require from life when it's not scripted. Boyhood follows the life of Mason, taking a slice of each year of his life as he grows from a child to a young adult. Linklater manages to do so without forcing cohesion or an overall saccharine life message on us, so that we instead feel like an entirely privileged insider in this movie as we watch Mason grow before our eyes.

I love this movie though because it's not just Mason whom we see struggling with his woes as a child, his first love as an adolescent, and other life landmarks we can relate to. It's also an evolution and a growth of the people around him. His father (Ethan Hawke always at his best when working with Linklater) grows as a man figuring out who he is in life and what's important to him, and how to reconcile his ambitions and desires with reality. Mason's mother (a fantastic Patricia Arquette) is driven in her careers, but also muddling through life on various romantic ends.

Really though, the idea behind this movie is what's so ingenious. To think that Linklater had the foresight, the patience, and the desire to create this movie is indicative of the sort of art that needs a place in this world. There's an appreciation of life inherent in his movies as well as the recognition of the dual relationship of fragile strength in relationships that we all experience as we grow. Also, it's kind of nuts to think that Linklater was able to pinpoint what would be relevant a decade down the line. How did he know that Star Wars was going to come out with a new sequel? How???

This might be one of my favorite documentaries of all time...although to be fair, I have seen very few in my time. 20,000 Dayson Earth is a look into the enigmatic life of creative genius Nick Cave. There are some movies you watch and you know even as you sit through the first viewing that you'll have to watch it again to glean everything. With 20,000, I knew immediately that I'd have to come back to see this with a notebook in hand to scribble down everything that Cave was saying. Cave is foremost an artist, and everything he says about the demons that pour out of our mouths and through our scribbling hands is valuable for any other artist to take note. Troubled too, there are some dark motifs and a nebulous sort of recollection of his murky past, but these are interjected with scenes of him talking casually about his life as well as ones where he's sprawled in front of a television set with his children.

20,000 is also shot beautifully, feeling more like a cinematic film than a documentary at times. And some of the footage from his concerts makes me feel even more strongly that to be a rockstar is to be a sort of god, with the adulation and complete rapt attention of the masses focused entirely on you. So this is what it must feel like to be a god amongst men.

7. Interstellar

Whatever you feel about Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, you have to admit that it's every bit worth it to see it on the largest screen possible. I have extreme respect for Nolan and what he's doing for film. I've said before that his movies for the masses are much like what Lost was -- a mainstream creation that's not afraid to make its audience think, debate, and puzzle. Interstellar seemed pretty prime for a public that's eating up Cosmos and in a time when quantum physics and string theory is kind of sexy to the intellectual public.

The reason it's not higher on my list is because there are some troubling plot holes as well as scientific inconsistencies (in the science as well as the so-called scientists of the movie) that bog the movie down. But the reason it was a must on my top ten list of the year was the sheer magnitude of the cinematic experience. There are shots and scenes that make me ache to recall, from the earth shots of Matthew McConaughey driving through fields of corn to the up-close, minimal yet highly effective shots of the shuttle docking in space. Some of it had me gripping the armrests of my seat in awe and a sort of joy. This movie thus far, features the usage of the most 15/70mm film and has the distinction of being possibly the last movie to do so. And you feel it in every shot. You have to admire Nolan's commitment to filming as well as the massive sets he built in order to minimize the amount of CG. I love the restraint Nolan shows in the silence of his space shots, as well as in Hans Zimmer's surprisingly effective soundtrack. Bottom line, it's just a beautiful movie to look at.

6. Gone Girl

There's a reason why Gone Girl is quite possibly my favorite David Fincher movie. Fincher's adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel of a toxic marriage turned murder mystery captures all the dark demons any relationship faces. The horror of this movie isn't that we suspect Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) has murdered his wife, but how they turn on each other and wither into themselves to become shells of anything they ever wanted.

Fincher is always pitch-perfect in casting, and he couldn't have scored better than Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike - equally enigmatic and inscrutable for different reasons. Jeff Croenworth is the surehanded cinematographer and the movie just seems to glide by visually. The plot twist is easily seen, but Fincher is 100% committed to the thematic elements of deception, public facade, and the meanness of our desires in relationships as well as how we suffer for denying them the light of day. The result is a meticulously crafted movie that bears both instant visual gratification and a considerable amount to chew over afterwards. Go see it with your significant other. Or not.

Original review for this movie here.A sort of analysis on relationships in the movie here.